


Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus (Spark Joy Version)

by acidbathh



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: and give the characters the justice they deserve, enter the florpus did not spark joy, so i'm going to utterly obliterate that terrible movie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-23 14:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20341804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acidbathh/pseuds/acidbathh
Summary: I used to look up into space with hope and wonder in my eyes.Until one day, it looked back.Invader Zim: Evil, alien soldier of the Irken Empire. Sent by his masters, the Almighty Tallest, to infiltrate Earth and ultimately prepare it for the coming invasion.Disguised as one of us, he moved into my neighbourhood, he went to my school, and with the help of his mechanical servants, plotted to destroy everything we have, everything we are. And then...He vanished.My name is Dib Membrane. I'm twelve years old, and I'm all that stands between Zim and the total annihilation of our world as we know it.[Note: I'm not changing the entire movie, many details and plot points will stay the same, and please know that it's currently UNFINISHED. Keep that in mind.][Edit: Changed the title from "Enter the Florpus (The Better Version)" to "Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus (Spark Joy Version)" because I felt that the original title came off as a bit pretentious, lol. I promise I'm not trying to come off that way.]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Because I didn't feel that Invader Zim: Enter The Florpus truly captured the original spirit of the Invader Zim series, and was also full of flawed, lazy writing and static characters and was generally a pretty bad movie cashing in on nothing but nostalgia for its profit, I'm going to re-write the movie in a way that I think would better suit the characters. A story full of dynamic characters, hopefully clever jokes, depressing realizations and an actual bond between two enemies that we know was there but never got the chance to be expanded upon. 
> 
> So much like Marie in that one episode of Supernatural, I'm writing my own ending to Invader Zim, and I hope I can actually manage to stay angry enough to finish it.

**Prologue**

I used to look up into space with hope and wonder in my eyes.

Until one day, it looked back.

Invader Zim.

Evil, alien soldier of the Irken Empire. Sent by his masters, the Almighty Tallest, to infiltrate Earth and ultimately prepare it for the coming invasion.

Disguised as one of us, he moved into my neighbourhood, he went to my school, and with the help of his mechanical servants, plotted to destroy everything we have, everything we are. And then...

He vanished.

My name is Dib Membrane. I'm twelve years old, and I'm all that stands between Zim and the total annihilation of our world as we know it.


	2. Chapter 1

** [Chapter 1]   
**

**[Now]**

Downstairs, Professor Membrane prepares dinner for his two children, Gaz and Dib Membrane.

"Now," He begins his speech. "Prepare your starving, gurgling child bellies for the awesome eventuality of dinner!" He shouts, dramatically pointing to a robot dubbed Foodio 3000. Then, a giant flash of blue lightning shoots from the robot, and for a split second, Gaz swore she could see her father's skeleton. That was kind of neat. The oven on the front of Foodio opened up with a fully cooked dinner inside, and it teleported onto the girl's plate in front of her. Her eyes widen a little bit, but quickly go back to normal so as to not show much interest. It was just dinner after all, this was pretty normal for her.

The robot rolled up to her side and said, "Foodio 3000 hopes you love what I have made." It pauses for a moment. "Also, what is love?" Gaz restricted herself from replying with, "Baby don't hurt me" as that would be entirely stupid and on the level of her brother, Dib, which is a level she dared not stoop to. Gaz ignored the robot and instead spoke to her father. "Looks great, dad," She said. "I'm gonna eat that food." She grinned and pointed to her plate, but her father stopped her from picking up her fork by slamming his fist on the table and shouting, "Hold up there, daughter!" She reeled back slightly, but more so she could look at her tall father rather than out of shock or surprise. No one's antics surprised her anymore. "Isn't it time your brother should be joining us?" He asked. Gaz took a sip from her juice and sighed. "Oh, man, no." She said.

"Since Zim vanished, Dib's been in his room for, like, a million years." She pursed her lips. "I hardly recognize him anymore." She glared at the plate in front of her. "He just sits in that chair getting grosser..." She radiated hatred and disgust as she brought her fists up to the table and clenched them so hard her knuckles turned white, and her eyes widened while her glare hardened. "Smellier..." Her hands and voice shook with rage and her eye twitched at the metaphorical loss of her brother to that stupid alien kid, Zim.

However, her father, ever the ignorant genius, didn't seem to share her anger. "He sure does," He replies more calmly. "But try to be more understanding." He pulls some pieces of a machine out of his pocket and starts to assemble them. "Dib's finally letting go of his silly obsession with aliens and ghosts and all his other non-scientific nonsense." Gaz had to hold herself back from starting an argument with him. Letting go? She would hardly call what Dib was doing anything even remotely close to letting go. That was as far from letting go as someone could get. Her father finished assembling the little piece of technology and repeatedly pressed a button on it until it released an image of a holographic fork. "And it's not easy for him." He waved it around a little, leaving a bit of a blue trail behind his arm. "Imagine if you stopped believing in, oh, video games." He leaned over the table as he said that, like it was appropriate and casual to sputter such atrocious blasphemy in front of his daughter.

"Don't even joke about that, dad." Her voice seethed with anger, and she clenched her fist so hard that the fork in her hand bent entirely, completely irreparable. Foodio immediately took the fork from her hand and replaced it instantly. Her father continued, seeming to ignore his daughter entirely, as was the usual. "Honey, letting go of silly ideas is just part of growing up." His voice perked up a little, and it was easy to tell that he was smiling a little under the ridiculously large collar of his lab coat. "Why, as a child, I thought sharks were my friends!" But his tone took a darker turn when he spun from the table, no longer facing Gaz and taking the glove off his hand, revealing a fully functional, robotic arm replacing his original, organic one. "But I know better now." Gaz raised a brow, never having heard the full story, but decided not to press it for now. Soon, her father turned back and regained his more optimistic, but slightly condescending tone. "So try to be more supportive. He's your brother, after all." 

Gaz rolled her eyes and sighed, reluctant. She got out of her chair and put on the Gazmat suit that her father had made for her when her brother got too disgusting to stand without some kind of protection. She grabbed a frying pan from the cabinets and said, "Okay, dad." As she walked off to her brother's room, she grumbled under her breath.

As she neared his room via the darkened, near abandoned hallway, she could see mold spores and heavy dust in the air. The floorboard creaked under her feet as she walked, and she had to turn on the lights on the side of her Gazmat suit so she could see, since the lights in that hallway didn't work anymore. She neared her brother's poster-littered door and squinted at it, internally dreading having to go inside that disgusting room. The metre on her suit beeped. She wasn't quite sure what it was for, it was an silhouette of her brother's head and hair with a frowny face. It was filled to the top with red light, and that couldn't mean anything good. Against her natural instincts, she yelled at the door of her brother's room with poison in her voice.

"Hey, Dib!" She yelled. "Dad says to come to dinner!" She then took the frying pan she'd brought along with her and threw it at her brother's bedroom door as hard as she could, knocking it open and releasing a disgusting stench that Gaz was thankful she couldn't smell from the confines of her suit. From the open door, she could see into her brother's room. Littered with trash, soda cans, empty food containers and dishes, and dirty clothes, which was surprising because Gaz was sure he hadn't truly changed clothes since he realized that Zim was missing. There was also the collection of computer screens all over his room, so he could continuously watch for Zim From inside the room, she could hear the quiet, raspy whisper of what used to be her stupid, dorky brother's voice. "You know I can't leave my post, Gaz." He said. "Just shove the food in here." Gaz rolled her eyes and sighed. "Where's the shoving stick?" She said. "I can't shove without the shoving stick." Lord knew she wouldn't go into that room just to give her stupid brother some food because he was too obsessed with Zim to come out of his room. Gaz briefly left to look for the shoving stick, but her brother continued talking.

"Zim's still out there, Gaz, so I have to wait... And watch." You wouldn't be able to see quite what he looked like because of the monitors and how dark the rest of his room was. But it was reasonable to assume he was disgusting. His silhouette, however, was quite visible, and it was at least easy enough to see him hunched over his desk while he spoke. "No one else will. They could never see the truth." _Geez_, Gaz thought. _My brother sure does have an annoying martyr complex for a twelve year old. What a drama queen._ "Why, though?" He continued on, even though Gaz was barely listening. "Brainwashing?" He looked to a stack of theories he had pinned to his wall. "Mind control?" Another pile of theories. He whispered his last theory. "Brain-erasing ghosts?" Even he had to know that was stupid, right? "Nobody believes me now, but I'll make them see." Gaz just stood at the entrance to her brother's door, unsure of where the shoving stick was and unsure of how to convince him to come downstairs, and unsure if she even wanted him there. Gaz had an incredulous look on her face as Dib went on, even more. "I'll expose Zim to the world, and open humanity's eyes to the danger they were in all along." Gaz squinted a little.

"Even dad, world-famous man of science, will say," And then he proceeded to do his worst impression of their father ever. It was truly an atrocity, and you should be glad that you can't hear it. "I believe you, Dib! I'm sorry I ever doubted you!" Gaz glared as she said, "That's the worst dad impression ever. It was bad and you should feel bad." Dib didn't seem to hear her, though, either that or he was ignoring her. She went on anyways. "Just let it go, Stinkbrain. Zim's been gone for a long time, and as far as we know, that's a good thing. Who knows, maybe his plan all along was to have you obsess over him like this just to get under your skin so you would be horribly unprepared for when he does show back up again." She shook her head. No, that's stupid. "That's stupid, though. I'm even willing to bet that Zim will never, ever-" She was cut off by movement on the screen of one of Dib's many monitors. "Oh, wait, there he is." She mentally retracted all of her previous statements. In that moment, Dib screeched and sputtered out, "It's Zim!" No shamrock, sherlock.

"He's back!" Dib went on. "And he's doing stretches!?" It could be observed clear as day on the screens before them that Zim was out in his front yard after not having been there for a very long time, and he was now doing stretches with his robot dog, GIR. "Nobody stretches like that unless they're warming up for something evil!" THat seemed like a bit of a stretch to Gaz, but she didn't argue, this was pretty strange. However, Gaz was actually shocked for the first time in her life when her brother yelled, "That's it!" He groaned. "The moment I've been..." He grunted, and something in his room crashed to the floor. "Waiting for!" The light on Gaz's Gazmat suit started blinking and beeping some more as the metre was finally full. She took a step back, entirely unsure of what to do, since this has never happened before.

"What are you doing?" Gaz asked, as her brother's gangly arms emerged from his room for the first time in months, and grasped firmly onto the sides of his door frame for support. It was the first of him she had seen in far too long, however the rest of him stayed suspiciously obscured. "Gotta... Get to..." Dib yelled through grunts and gasps as he tried desperately to get to the door. Gaz could see the light reflect off the lenses of his probably expired glasses as a horrible creature that was supposed to be her brother reared its head, opening it's gaping, revolting maw to speak, releasing gasses that you don't think even your father has discovered yet. "Zim..." Gaz was utterly taken aback by what her brother was doing, stepping backwards in shock and maybe even a little fear. This was the first time ever that you have feared your brother in the slightest. At this point, she barely knew what he was, let alone what he was capable of in this state. Logically, she knew it probably wasn't much, but the stench was enough by itself to probably kill something. "Dib, no!" Gaz cried. "Look at you! The world's not ready to see what you've become." And truly, she knew it was horrible. "You're hideous!" Gaz's eyes widened in fear as the light from her suit managed to capture what he looked like in full, and she felt vomit creep up the back of her throat.

Dib ignored her pleas, even if they would be the only pleas he would ever hear come from her mouth, and continued on, using his dirty feet to guide his wheely-rolly desk chair, whatever it's official name was, out of his room. "The smell!" It was finally penetrating her suit, and she could do nothing about it. If this was only half of what he smelled like, she wouldn't want to know the true stench in full. Dib used the wall to station his arms along so he could guide the chair down the hall. "The world..." He said. "Needs me!" He struggled, as the wheels on the bottom of his chair weren't actually used for this much rolling. Gaz gagged. "Take a bath first!" She yelled. "Take- take a bath!" She screamed as the creature before her moved ever closer, encasing her in the horrible stench for what she thought would be forever.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib finally meets Zim for the first time in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's where i start to change a few things about the movie up a little bit.

** **[Chapter 2]** **

** **[Phase 1]** **

It’s a dark and stormy night. Or at least someone wanted it to seem that way.

Rain, or something along those lines, pelts the roads and houses along the cul de sac.

At the opening sits person, in a rolly office chair. Lightning strikes nearby and briefly illuminates the scene, casting a long shadow down the street in the shape of his silhouette. He rolls forward, struggling against the road’s rugged pattern of stone before him, his feet barely reaching the ground. His chair creaks eerily in protest as he rolls forward, slowly approaching the green and purple house that he had become ever so familiar with over the years.

He could see Zim in his front yard, stretching alongside his robotic servant, GIR, while wearing his terrible ‘human’ disguise, the black hair of his wig wettened in the false rain pouring down. It was definitely strange to see because Dib was sure that Zim had been allergic to water at some point, but he didn’t seem to be burning alive tonight. It had to have all been a part of his plan. Another trick.

“Zim.” Dib’s voice carried over the rain and to the inhuman creature before him. Immediately, the alien jumped up and screeched in response. Lightning flashed again, illuminating the scene and making it incredibly dramatic. “Yes!” He cried. “It is I, and-!” He seemed to finally process Dib’s current physical appearance, and made a strange, confused noise. “Hm?” He hummed, furrowing his caked on brows. He paused in his dramatic posing and squinted to get a better look at the creature before him through the rain. Flies buzzed around Dib’s greasy head as Zim said, “Oh, wait, sorry.” Zim didn’t seem to recognize Dib at all in his current state. Not that Dib blamed him, he could barely recognize himself after having not looked at a mirror in several months, let alone shower. Zim continued. “You’ll have to move along, hideous goblin.” He waved a hand at Dib to shoo him away dismissively. “I’m posing dramatically for when the Dib shows up.” Dib sighed, wiping the rain water from his greasy face and taking his expired glasses off to clean them. It was time to stop this nonsense. “I am Dib.” Dib replied, his tone sharp and annoyed. Zim took a small step back, raising a brow in obvious confusion. He appeared to be trying to compare the two faces of Dib, the one he knew and the one in front of him. “What?” He asked. Lightning flashed again, and Zim made several disgusted noises when it lit up the body before him. “But--” Dib couldn’t get another word out before Zim said, “Give me a sec’ here.” He coughed and turned around for a moment, and Dib said, “We know each other.” He looked a little bored and unimpressed with Zim’s antics, trying to hide the embarrassment from coming to his mortal enemy looking the way he did. He should have listened to Gaz when she told him to take a shower. Zim cleared his throat before turning around again and beginning his speech once more.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Dib!” He screeched, leaning back and pointing at Dib in a way that one who knew him could only call ‘classic Zim’. Thunder clapped in the background of his booming voice, almost drowning it out, but somehow amplifying it at the same time. It was dramatic and entertaining to watch, very Megamind-esque.

Dib, trying to seem all the more unimpressed, replied with, “I can tell.” He turned around, looking at the scene before him. “You set up sprinklers and everything.”

‘Tis was true, when one were to stand back and actually look at the scene, there was a sprinkler to Zim’s right, and a radio and strobe light to his left. Truly Zim had taken after Megamind to a degree, making his villainy all about performance and presentation. It was quite impressive, the efforts that he had gone to, dare I say, impress Dib? Or to bestow fear upon him, but who knows at this point? If you were to think about it, it was kind of sweet that Zim went so out of his way to impress/strike fear in the heard of Dib. It didn’t work, of course, and ended up coming off as almost pathetic, but it’s the thought that counts.

Immediately upon being called out, Zim gathered up his stuff as fast as he could, unplugging the sprinklers and grabbing the light and radio and making GIR eat them. GIR choked down what he could with tears in his eyes, and Dib wondered how a robot could cry like that, but hey, alien (Irken) tech, who cares? Zim then got uncomfortably close to Dib and pointed in his face so close that his sharp hand was almost touching his eyeball, and Zim yelled far too loud, “YOU CAN’T PROVE ANYTHING!” Even spitting in Dib’s face a little bit. He then calmed down very quickly. “Anyhow, I--” But he was cut off by Dib. “Where have you been, Zim?” He asked in a very accusing tone of voice. Dib pointed an irritated finger in Zim’s face; it was his turn to enjoy the discomfort of having someone’s hand uncomfortably close to him, and he said, “I’ve been monitoring your house, the Skool, that taco place you love so much-!” Dib jammed his irritated finger into his other hand as he listed off the places he’s been watching. Zim furrowed a brow at that last place. “No, no, GIR loves that place.” He corrected. “I think it’s dirty.” He squinted a little in a show of disgust.

Speak of the devil, GIR finally managed to speak after having struggled to swallow the items that Zim shoved in his mouth earlier. “I ate a baby there.” He said. Zim confirmed. “He did.” Dib, seeming fed up with the duo’s antics for the last time, began to yell. “What have you been up to, Zim!?” Zim smirked evilly, just one physical display of the plan he was about to reveal. “Phase one of my evil plan, human.” He said, with a cocky tone. As he spoke, he put a hand on Dib’s face and pushed, sending Dib’s rolly office chair reeling for a bit. “Phase one.” Zim repeated, putting his hands together and rubbing them like he was putting evil hand sanitizer on them. He looked into the camera and smiled this sick, villainous smile as he laughed maniacally. Zim thought back onto where he devised his ingenious plan, undisguised and in the safety of his home base, with GIR and his Minimoose, inside a toilet, (of course they weren’t there the entire time, just a huge chunk of the time…). A little confused, GIR laughed along with him, unsure of what his master was laughing about. In the heat of the moment, Zim says, “Computer! Laugh with me!” His computer, ever the smart-ass, replied, “I don’t want to.” Must be going through a human teen phase.

Zim laughed along with the video on his phone while showing it to Dib. Why would he make that a video? That’s practically hard evidence that he was an alien, and he just had it there. Does he know how easily phones can be hacked into? How easily his data can be stolen? He must not, even Dib had to admit that Zim’s alien tech was still pretty far advanced compared to human technology. He sighed and closed the video out, turning his phone off.

Dib raised his brows. “You’ve been in your house…” He said, and Zim nodded. “Sitting in a toilet… This entire time?” Zim shrugged. “More or less, yeah.” Dib cocked his head to the side. “Are you for real right now?” Zim shrugged. “More or less, yeah.” “Like, the whole, entire time?” Zim confirmed it all. “That’s right.” Dib paused. “Did you have to stay in a toilet the entire tim-” “DO NOT TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE WAYS OF MY PEOPLE.” Zim yelled, grabbing Dib by the front of his shirt and sticking his face way too far into Dib’s personal space, again. He stayed like that for a few minutes while Dib could only merely cower in fear and wait for it to be over. He then stepped away and explained.

“From the moment my mission began,” He started, pacing as he spoke. “On this horrible planet, you’ve been there, haunting my every move like a squak in my schmoopsquizz.” He pointed an accusing finger at Dib, while Dib could only look horribly confused as he dared ask, “A what in your huh?” Zim got uncomfortably close to him again, shoving his face in Dib’s, saying “Uh-huh!” Before pulling away. “And while the rest of your kind were easily fooled,” He continued. “You were able to see through,” He began to take off his wig and contact lenses, exposing his alien form. “My brilliant disguise!” His ruby eyes shined brightly and his antennae flipped up from his head in the moonlight, leaving Dib to wonder if they ever got tired from being under that wig for so long.

Across the street, a large and gullible man that Zim had come to know and love for his stupidity, had spat out his soda and called out, “Martha!” A woman jumped to the window of their supposed shared house, and she said, “Eh?” “The neighbour boy’s an alien!” The man called. Zim immediately put his disguise back on, prompting the man to call everything off as a false alarm. Zim stood innocently, while Dib violently internally raged, and the man across the street said, “Oh, never-mind, Martha, he’s normal,” And the woman flew from her window, and the man went back to his soda and everything was normal again. Dib was absolutely furious at his species for being this stupid.

Zim grinned evilly and continued his speech. “I knew that if I vanished for long enough,” He said. “You’d just watch and wait.” He continued to pace around Dib as he spoke, subtly taunting him with the use of his legs, while Dib’s pathetic walking sticks were practically atrophied. Zim got uncomfortably close to Dib once more, leaning in and grinning evilly, (Dib swore that if he had a dollar for every time Zim got uncomfortably close to him during this meet-up, he’d be rich). “Your neglected body growing smelly and useless.” Dib looked at his hands and the rest of his body, and knew Zim was right. He had become smelly and useless. He was so caught up in the idea that he needed to save the world by watching for Zim, and in the process incapacitated himself, thus making him almost entirely useless in a fight with him. He couldn’t do anything. The road to Hell truly was paved with good intentions, and if he wasn’t in Hell now, he didn’t know where he was.

Yet, Zim still had more to say, as usual. “But that was only phase one of my evil plan.” He beamed proudly, hunching over himself and striking yet another evil pose. One could bet that he had practiced several evil villain poses and was just waiting to use them. “Well, keep watching, Dookie-Dib.” And watch he did, knowing he was utterly useless. “Watch helplessly as I begin…” He stomped his leg on the ground as hard as he could, emitting a surprisingly loud sound as he opened his arms in a powerful stance. “PHASE TWO.” His voice was surprisingly loud, booming and echoing in the cul de sac they stood in.

Dib had to admit that to some degree, he was intimidated. He swore he could even hear a chainsaw running in the background, who gave him one of those? When he was done asserting his dominance, Zim kicked over a trashcan, and Dib yelled, “No!” In a moment of lacking judgement. It wasn’t that bad to knock over a trashcan, honestly. Zim then went to someone’s mailboxes and started messing with their mail. “I’m switching people’s mail around!” He taunted. “That’s illegal! No!” Dib yelled. “That’s the point, clownbucket!” Clownbucket? Dib fell on the ground trying to reach out to Zim and stop him, but it was too late. He grabbed a newspaper off of someone’s front porch and Zim yelled, “I’m reading some else’s newspaper! I don’t pay for a subscription! Piracy!” He laughed evilly. “No one really reads newspapers anymore, but stop!” Dib cried, confused but desperate. Zim noticed the small, flying moose by his head and dropped the newspaper immediately. “Minimoose!” He said. “Get in on this mayhem!” The Minimoose, as Zim called it, floated over to a nearby car, where a child was standing. Dib could only imagine what horrible thing was about to transpire next.

Minimoose neared the child, who was drinking soda, and the car he was standing next to. It had a pizza sticker on it, and it seemed to catch the Moose’s attention. The kid noticed this, and, without hesitation, as if talking to a tiny flying moose was normal, he beamed. “That’s my mom’s Pizza Sticker.” He explained “She is CRAZY for pizza.” The Moose listened but didn’t care that the sticker had value to this family. It just used its powers to ever so slowly peel the sticker off the car. “Hey, what… What’re you…” The kid said nervously. “That’s- that’s- Hey, don’t, wait!” But the Moose didn’t listen to the child’s protests. It just continued taking the sticker. “Don’t! Don’t!” He cried, but the Moose continued on. The child’s stammering protests became panicked babbling as the Moose slowly lifted the sticker from the car and attached it to itself. The Moose seemed satisfied with the result, squeaking happily. Zim laughed, applauding the efforts of the Moose. “Excellent,” He said.

Then, GIR immediately ran by and yelled, “Me! Me! Let me do one!” He ran across the street into a neighbouring yard, where a pug sat innocently. GIR took the pug, shoved it into his mouth and shot it up into the air, possibly space, through his head. He walked over to Zim, his head smoking from the effort. “I launched a pug into space.” He said, cheerfully. Zim, confused, replied, “I thought you liked that pig.” In the distance, a car alarm sounded. GIR seemed disappointed then. “Why I do that?” He asked. Zim ignored him and went back around to Dib.

“What’s the matter, human?” He asked tauntingly. “Why aren’t you stopping me?” He put his hands at his sides and grinned, knowing full well why Dib wasn’t fighting back. “Can’t fight back…” Dib uttered. “Sat too long…” He tried to force his upper body up, and it was clear that it took a vast amount of effort. “Chair fused to butt.” He collapsed on the ground once more in defeat. “More chair than man, now.” Zim snickered as he walked back to his house. “Humans are such fragile, goopy things.” His voice sounded disgusted and taunting. “No Irken would ever become a chair.” He said proudly.

However, just as Zim was at his doorstep, Dib called out, “Wait!” Zim stopped and turned around. “Was that phase two?” Zim looked irritated. “Of course it was!” He said. “Probably. GIR, give me the plans I showed you earlier.” He demanded, holding out his hand. GIR opened the storage unit in the top of his head, and a couple of rolled up pieces of paper popped out for Zim to take. But… They looked… Damaged, somehow. Zim grabbed them and opened one of them up, only to discover that it was torn in half, and partially covered in cheese. He looked horrified, but desperately tried to hide it, both the plans and his expression. He opened the other and found it to be in a similar state, torn and covered in cheese. But that didn’t just look like any normal tear, no, it looked like it was torn with… Teeth? Zim’s hands shook as he realized what had happened. Someone had eaten them. He immediately looked to GIR, who seemed utterly innocent and unknowing to what had happened. Zim crushed up the torn and cheesed plans and flew open the door to his house. “Yes, yes, that was phase two, goodnight now, bye, love you! Have a good night.” He slammed the door as hard as he could, and Dib was left to pick himself up off the floor, desperately confused.

What just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first and probably one of the biggest issues i had with the movie is that zim straight up *forgot* his plans for phase two, which bothered me a lot. like, sure, we had a fun montage after that, but you could have gotten the same result if gir had, like with what i used in the end of this chapter, eaten the plans and/or covered them in cheese, because nachos seem to be ever so prevalent in this movie. it just bothered me a lot, and felt like lazy writing. it's not like i was expecting this to be absolutely perfect or absolutely representing the original show to a T, but, in my honest opinion, it didn't come off as a good plot point to me. 
> 
> i'm not trying to shit on it entirely, though, i do have to give it credit where it's due, and that is, for the most part, the intro and the first, about 10 minutes of the film are really good, promising. the animation is fluid and bright, the characters are (in the sense of animation, not writing) dynamic and fun to look at. the lolrandom humour was one of the biggest and best parts of invader zim that worked so well because, (in the words of a friend), it was juxtaposed by the grim setting. however, it just didn't feel quite right because it wasn't grim enough. OG zim had guts spilling out in almost every episode, and ms. bitters was spitting hard truths like dave strider spits fire. we barely get to see her in this film, if at all, too. 
> 
> so the animation and general quality of the visuals in this movie have absolutely shot up over the years, and even though i don't exactly agree with all of the character designs, i do still like them a lot, and i think that enter the florpus could do really well as a standalone movie, but it doesn't work great when compared to the original show because it's just so different.

**Author's Note:**

> Marie Kondo says that if it doesn't spark joy, throw it out, and that's my philosophy on canon, kids.


End file.
